1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to data memory cards and more particularly to the creation, storage, processing and sharing of documentation between agencies and their clients.
2. Description of Related Art
Persons needing federal, state or local support for any number of reasons often must deal with a number of agencies to obtain the benefits or services sought. For example, individuals that are handicapped with a developmental disability such as mental retardation have continual support through various agencies such as California Department of Education, California Employment Development Department, California Department of Developmental Services, California Bureau of Mental Health, California Community College System, California State University System, California Job Training Partnership Administration, California Department of Rehabilitation, Social Security Administration, and California Family Resource Centers. Such agencies may be involved through the educational and vocational training period of such an individual during which time the individual's development is assessed, planned, implemented, reassessed on a continual basis. In the process of an individual's development, the individual along with his (or her) parents or guardian continually meet with various agencies, such as the agencies listed above, to obtain the development or other services needed by the individual. Typically, a case manager or liaison and one or more participating local agencies meets with the parent and individual to provide the planning and coordination of services necessary to receive the benefits from the various agencies for the individuals next developmental phase. Such meetings are typically scheduled on a yearly or more frequent basis. In the planning meeting, other agencies may be brought in depending on the assessment of the individual's needs and the activity or experience to be provided to the individual. Over the early life of the individual many meetings may take place with assessments, notes, recommendations and other documentation from various agencies. All such information will be used in coming up with a planning document which will continually be revised and updated. The volume of paperwork, documentation and forms in this process can become overwhelming to the family as they work with a number of agencies. The present documentation system for dealing with agencies is unduly burdensome for individuals and their families because of duplicative data collection, delays in multi agency collaboration, and inexhaustive forms and paperwork.
For example, an individual with mild mental retardation may be the client of a local regional center concurrently receiving services from special education. Regular meetings are held to develop an individual's yearly plan for his vocational education. The planning meetings could include the individual's parents, his teachers, a psychologist, speech and language specialist, a regional center case manager and transitional specialist, representing perhaps various agencies. Meeting notes are taken by the various participants and a record of the planning meeting documented in writing by the various participants. The different agency representatives typically have separate planning documents and forms provided for by their respective agency policies and procedures. The family is given a number of paper documents from the planning meeting which may include notes, forms and planning documents from the various participants and their respective agencies. This governmental paper documentation can become overwhelming to the family and individual and cause delays in dealing with future problems or other agencies. Further, much of the paperwork becomes duplicative in future meeting or in dealings with other agencies causing the family and individual to spend a lot of extra time and effort in obtaining and utilizing the services and benefits of the cognizant governmental agencies. A need therefore exits for a method for a family and individual to deal with the governmental agencies, and the various agencies to deal with each other, in providing assistance to individuals that eases the burden of the family in obtaining such assistance for the individual.
Attempts at designing information gathering and processing systems have been made but none that would assist the individual and agencies in the aforedescribed circumstances. For example, U.S. Patent issued to Lawrence Prichard discloses a medical insurance verification and processing system which uses a medical information card. The card is inserted into a local entry terminal which communicates with a central computer to provide insurance information. The card may include an integrated circuit for updating, storing or processing information. An article in a December, 1993 Wall Street Journal issue discloses a memory card used for recording a patient's insurance status, name, address, next of kin, doctor, medical condition, past surgeries and pharmaceutical records. The card can be read by an emergency medical technician with a pocket computer and help determine whether an unconscious person has diabetes, a heart condition or is an alcoholic, for example. An insurance smart card used by French Mutual Insurance (disclosed in a brochure entitled Mutuelles de France--C3S) provides an insured with a portable administration file, portable medical file and a means of payment. The medical file contains the card bearer's emergency health details and a data zone for preventative health care for the individual. Other examples illustrating uses of memory cards and management of transactions are illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 5,241,161; U.S. Pat. No. 5,228,094; U.S. Pat. No. 5,227,612; U.S. Pat. No. 5,019,697; U.S. Pat. No. 4,853,522; U.S. Pat. No. 4,831,242, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,816,653. None of these patents disclose a viable solution. It would therefore be an advancement in the art to provide a method to facilitate the information handling in the client relationship between agencies and individuals.